The Weimar Republic 1930 - 1933
President Hindenburg greets the new Chancellor
Adolf Hitler on the 30th January 1933
The Origins of the Nazi Party
•The small German Workers
Party (DAP) was founded in
Munich in 1919 by Anton
Drexler, a Berlin locksmith and
war veteran.
•Hitler encountered the Party
as a ‘political education
officer’ in the German army
investigating ‘undesirable’ leftwing groups.
•Although the Party had leftwing anti-capitalist tendencies,
it also embraced right-wing
anti-Semitic and nationalistic
thinking.
Anton Drexler
Origins of the Nazi Party
•Hitler joined the Party and together with Drexler, they
drew up a 25 Point Programme outlining their aims.
These included revocation of the treaties of Versailles
and St. Germain, the union of all Germans in a Greater
Germany and the prohibition of profiteering by big
business.
•The Party was also renamed the National Socialist
German Workers Party (NSDAP) and membership
increased to 3300.
•Hitler himself took over as leader in 1921.
•Even before becoming leader, Hitler had already
developed much of the propaganda that would
characterise the Nazi Party e.g. the salute, use of the
swastika and formation of uniformed armed squads.
1921 – 1923 Strengthening the Party
•The armed squads were
developed into organised
paramilitary units led by Ernest
Rohm and known as the SA
(stormtroopers).
•A Party newspaper, Volkischer
Beobachter (the People’s
Observer), was published from
1921.
•Hitler won the backing of Julius
Streicher who gave the NSDAP
publicity in his own anti-Semitic
newspaper Der Sturmer.
Ernst Rohm
1921-1923 Strengthening the Party
•Hermann Goering, the son of a Bavarian landowner and
husband of a Swedish aristocrat dropped out of university
and joined the SA as a commander in 1922.
•Many useful social contacts with powerful people were made
as a result and this gave Hitler and Nazism respectability.
1923 The Munich Beer Hall Putsch
•By 1923, Nazi Party membership stood at 20 000 and
the economic crisis of 1923 had made the Weimar
government deeply unpopular with many in Germany.
•Inspired by Mussolini’s ‘March on Rome’ the previous year,
Hitler decided to overthrown the federal government of
Bavaria and then takeover the national government in Berlin.
•On the 8th November 1923 when the Bavarian leader
von Kahr was addressing a large meeting in a Munich
beer hall, Hitler and the Nazis seized control.
•Hitler declared a ‘national revolution’, which he claimed
was supported by the army and the police. Von Kahr and
other Bavarian leaders were forced at gunpoint to
support it.
•The next day Hitler and the war hero General
Ludendorff marched into the city of Munich with 2000
SA to meet up with Rohm who had occupied some
government buildings but the uprising was easily crushed
by police.
•14 Nazis were killed and Hitler was arrested on a
charge of treason.
Nazis barricade the War Ministry buildings in Munich 9th
November 1923
February 1924 Hitler on Trial
Frick
Rohm
Ludendorff
Hitler
The main leaders of the Putsch before their trial
Outcome of the Trial
•Hitler was found guilty of treason, jailed and the NSDAP
were banned.
However…
•The trial brought Hitler weeks of valuable front-page
publicity and was a great propaganda success.
•A sympathetic judiciary meant that he was allowed to
interrupt and question witnesses and made speeches lasting
for hours.
•Although jailed, Hitler was only sentenced to the minimum
sentence (5 years ‘fortress detention’) and actually walked
free before the end of the year.
•While in jail, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which outlined his
world view and was to become the ‘bible’ of National
Socialism.
December 1924 Release from Landsberg
1924 A Change in Direction
•Ten months in Landsberg allowed Hitler to consider the
future of the Party.By the time of his release the future
looked bleak. The Party was in disarray, membership was in
decline and the atmosphere of economic crisis had subsided.
•Hitler therefore decided that Putschist (violent) tactics
would have to be abandoned and instead the Nazis would try
to win electoral support.
“.. we shall have to hold our noses and enter the
Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist deputies. If
out-voting them takes longer than our shooting them, at
least the result will be guaranteed by their own
Constitution.”
Hitler, Landsberg 1924
1924 A Change in Direction
•Strict organisation of the Party was also deemed to be
necessary. Up to 1923 Party supporters were largely
from Bavaria but this geographical spread would have to
be increased. A larger membership would also distinguish
the Nazis from other nationalist groups.
•The Fuhrer’s will would need to dominate completely
(Fuhrerprinzip) to enable the Nazis to appear united.
Hitler planned only to intervene in party disputes when
they had reached crisis stage and his decision would be
final.
Belief in a hierarchy of
races (Aryans superior,
Slavs and Jews
inferior)
All ethnic Germans
should be part of
Greater Germany
Hitler’s ‘World View’
Versailles
must be
overturned
Opposition to Communism as
a left wing ideology and
part of the ‘Jewish
conspiracy’
Opposition
to
democracy
and the
Weimar
Republic
Lebensraum (living space)
in Eastern Europe would
allow Germany to expand
successfully
Hitler’s World View
•Hitler believed in social Darwinism which maintained life was
no more than the ‘survival of the fittest’.He felt it was
natural that ‘inferior’ Jews and Slavs were dominated by the
pure Herrenvolk (the ‘Aryan’ master race of northern Europe)
•The purity of the
‘Aryan’ line had to be
preserved at all costs.
In Nazi Germany this
led to the development
of the pseudo-science of
‘racial hygiene’.
•Abolition of the Treaty of Versailles and the return of
lost territories would lead to the creation of a new
empire (Reich).
•However, this Reich was to be bigger than the Germany
of 1914. Austrian Germans as well as those in the
Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and the German
communities along the Baltic coast were to be included.
“… The German people must be assured the territorial
area which is necessary for it to exist on earth…People of
the same blood should be in the same Reich.”
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
‘Europe’s Victory is your
prosperity’ -poster from
1941 which saw the
culmination of Hitler’s
ambition in the East when
he launched an invasion of
the Soviet Union.
•Conquest of Poland and the Soviet Union would allow
Germany to obtain raw materials, cheap labour and
food. This policy of Lebensraum would allow Greater
Germany to compete as an equal alongside Britain and
the USA on the world stage.
•This ‘New Order’ would not only bring about the subjugation
of inferior Slavs, it would also ensure the destruction of the
USSR, the centre of world communism after 1917.
•For Hitler, the communist beliefs of Jews like Karl Marx and
Trotsky was further proof that there was a worldwide Jewish
conspiracy.
•Hitler also believed there was no realistic alternative
to strong dictatorial government. Parliamentary
democracy was weak and ineffective and at odds with
Germany’s military traditions.
•The ‘November Criminals’ of the Weimar Republic had
betrayed Germany by accepting the armistice and
establishing democracy. Since then, Germany had
lurched from one crisis to the next.
•Instead, a one-party state which rejected
representative government and liberal values would
control the masses for the common good. An individual
leader (Fuhrer) should be chosen to take necessary
decisions.
•The resulting Volksgemeinschaft (‘people’s community’)
would override divisions of class, religion and politics
and encourage people to work together under a new
collective national identity.
How new were Hitler’s ideas?
“Nazism lacked coherence and was intellectually superficial
and simplistic…It was merely a collection of ideas not very
cleverly pieced together.” (Layton 2005)
•Every aspect of Hitler’s thinking can be found to have
been voiced in nineteenth century Germany.
•His nationalism can be seen as an outgrowth of the
fervour that led to unification in 1871.
•Demands for a ‘Greater Germany’ had already been made
after 1871 by those who felt unification had not gone far
enough.
•Racist ideas and in particular anti-Semitism had been
developing and the imperialist idea of Lebensraum had
already been raised by those who saw the German race as
superior.
Was the rise of Hitler in Germany inevitable?
•Germany also had a strong socialist tradition during the
nineteenth century.
•A number of other countries, notably Britain and France,
also witnessed the voicing of similar nationalist and racist
ideas at the same time.
•Anti-Semitism in Europe was centuries old. For example,
in 1290 Jewish people in Britain had been expelled, only
being formally readmitted in the seventeenth century.
Scapegoating Jewish people for a country’s problems was
still easily accepted by many in the mid-twentieth
century.
1925-1929
•On the 27th February 1925 the NSDAP was officially
refounded in Munich and the following year Hitler formally
established his leadership of the Party.
•The party was reorganised into regions (Gaue) and a
vertical structure was set up that did not detract from
Hitler’s position of authority. Regional leaders (Gauleiters)
were responsible for creating district (Kreis) and local
branches (Ort).
•Associated Nazi organisations were set up to appeal
directly to specific interest groups e.g. Hitler Youth, Nazi
Teachers Association, Union of Nazi Lawyers.
Hitler at the Nuremberg rally of 1927
1925-1929
•The SS were set up in 1925 under Himmler as an elite
bodyguard sworn to absolute obedience to Hitler.
•By 1928 Party membership stood at 108 000, a four
fold increase from 1925.
•However, the Party failed to make inroads in the cities
and in May 1928, it did poorly in the Reichstag
elections, winning only 2.6% of the total vote and a
mere 12 seats.
•The seats that were gained were in mainly rural areas
where the fall in agricultural prices was leading to
increasing discontent and bankruptcies. The Nazis tried
to capitalise on this by calling for expropriation of
Jewish agricultural property.
The Depression and the Rise of the Nazis
•Only a year after the Wall Street Crash unemployment in
Germany had reached 3 million and by January 1932 it
stood at 6.1 million.
•An estimated 20 million people were relying on 6 marks a
week in family welfare payments and 1 million had no
support at all.
•Many manual industrial workers faced the prospect of longterm unemployment.
•The middle classes were also dragged down as there was
little demand for the goods and services of small
shopkeepers, lawyers and doctors.
•As world demand fell further, the agricultural depression
deepened and some tenant farmers faced the humiliation of
being evicted from homes which had been in their families
for generations.
Nazi Breakthrough – September 1930
•Chancellor Muller had been replaced
in March 1930 by Bruning following
disagreements in Muller’s coalition
over levels of welfare payments.
•Bruning however, was soon relying
on presidential decree to get
legislation passed.
•Reichstag elections in September
1930 saw the Nazis make dramatic
gains. With 107 seats and 18.3% of
the total vote, they were now the
second largest party in the
Reichstag.
•These gains had come at the
expense of centre right parties
who lost rural and middle class
votes to the Nazis.
•Turnout had also improved
from 75.6% to 82% and there
had been 1.8 million new young
voters.
1930 Nazi election
poster reads
‘Freedom and Bread’
•The Nazis appeared as a
youthful, dynamic and vigorous
alternative to most Weimar
parties who appeared to consist
of dull middle-aged men who
were constantly embroiled in
self-serving coalition
squabbles.
•Facing potential opposition from at least 64% of the
Reichstag, Bruning was re-appointed Chancellor.
•However, Hindenburg was prepared to use presidential
decrees to support him and the SPD tolerated him through
fear of the increasing influence of the extreme parties.
•Parliament did indeed appear to be dying. The number of
Presidential decrees passed increased from 5 in 1930 to
66 in 1932 while the amount of Reichstag laws passed by
votes decreased from 98 in 1930 to 5 in 1932.
•Although a self-confessed opponent of the democratic
Republic and keen to see a return to more authoritarian
government, Bruning was wary of the Nazi Party and
banned the SA in April 1932.
Presidential Elections Spring 1932
•Hindenburg was reelected with 53% of
the vote and
supported by the
moderate left and
centre.
Hindenburg’s election poster says
‘vote for a man not a party’
while Hitler’s shows a strongman
breaking free of his chains
•Hitler meanwhile had
polled 36.8% of the
vote and had
projected a very
powerful personal
image during the
campaign.
•Hindenburg by now was extremely elderly and it has
been claimed that he was suffering from advancing
senility and “mental blackouts”.
•A scheming and ambitious army officer Kurt von
Schleicher, who held the ear of Hindenburg, wanted
Bruning out of office. Schleicher felt that Bruning’s
opposition to the Nazis was wrong in the face of recent
popular support and that they should be included in
government.
•From Spring 1932, Hindenburg refused to sign any more
decrees for Bruning whose position now became
untenable. Bruning resigned at the end of May.
‘Backstairs Intrigue’
Hindenburg, von Schleicher and
Franz von Papen photographed in
1932
Von Schleicher
Von Papen
‘Backstairs Intrigue’
•In place of Bruning, Schleicher recommended Franz von
Papen an aristocrat and a member of the Centre Party
with strong nationalist sympathies. Hindenburg was
convinced and appointed him.
•However, von Papen did not even have a seat in the
Reichstag and his ‘Cabinet of Barons’ included some
leading industrialists and aristocrats who did not have
seats either.
•To ensure support from the Reichstag and in particular
the suddenly popular Nazi party, the ban on the SA and
the SS were lifted. Von Papen also agreed to hold new
elections for the Reichstag in July 1932 as Hitler
demanded and hoped that with support from the Nazis,
this form of presidential government could work.
Reichstag Elections July 1932
•Germany witnessed a brutal campaign with 86 people
killed in political street fighting during the month of
July alone.
•The election was a fantastic success for the Nazis with
37.3% of the total vote and 230 seats. The NSDAP was
now the largest party in the Reichstag.
•The nationalists (DNVP), middle class democratic
parties (DDP, DVP) and the moderate left wing (SPD) all
lost votes, although turnout had again increased.
•The Nazis were not the only success story. The KPD
also increase their share of the vote to 14.3%. This
meant that only 39.5% of the German people had voted
for pro-democratic parties whereas over half (51.6%)
had voted for the extreme left and right.
How important was the economy for the Nazis?
•Childers (1983) claims it was the fear of unemployment
rather than unemployment itself that made people look
to the Nazi party during the early 1930s (‘the politics
of anxiety’).
•The NSDAP vote was concentrated among the agrarian
and small-town middle classes in the Protestant north
and east. In other words it was those who still had
something to lose and who feared loss of social status
who voted NSDAP.
•He maintains that Catholics tended to remain loyal to
the Centre party and that the workers who were laid
off first and were therefore actually unemployed at the
time, would have still voted for the traditional working
class parties (SPD and KPD).
Voting Patterns in Germany 1920 - 1933
Hitler was not offered the Chancellorship in the summer
of 1932 and he rejected Hindenburg’s offer of ViceChancellor, greeting it with derision.
September 1932 Von Papen received a vote of no
confidence from the Reichstag. Hindenburg dissolved the
Reichstag the next day.
November 1932 Reichstag elections were held. The Nazis
lost ground and their share of the vote fell to 33%,
though they were still the largest party. However, this
decline in fortune perhaps encouraged the idea that Hitler
could be tamed and used by those who wished to harness
his mass following for their own purposes.
December 1932 Schleicher persuaded Hindenburg to dismiss
Papen and appoint himself as Chancellor. However, he failed
to gain the support of trade unionists and managed to
antagonise the industrialists and landowners.
January 1933 Papen now got his revenge on Schleicher. The
Nazi party appeared weak with a lack of funds and falling
membership. Papen met with Hitler and offered him the
Chancellorship with himself as Vice-Chancellor. Two other
Nazis could join him in the cabinet.
Hindenburg was encouraged to accept this proposal though
he personally disliked Hitler. It was assumed that Hitler
would be a ‘Chancellor in chains’ and that he could be used in
the interest of the conservative establishment.
January 30th 1933 Chancellor Hitler greeting the Nazi
torchlight parade passing the window of his new office.
President Hindenburg also gazes out the window at the sight.
The Establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship
January – March 1933 Control at the Centre
“In two months we’ll have pushed Hitler into a corner so
hard that he’ll be squeaking.” Von Papen January 1933
Hitler’s position appeared to be weak in January 1933
•Only 3 out of 12 Cabinet ministers were Nazis.
•Hitler’s coalition government did have a majority in the
Reichstag, making dramatic legislation difficult to
introduce.
•Hindenburg could dismiss Hitler at any point.
•The army could arrange a military coup if antagonised.
•Trade unions could organise a general strike as they did
against the Kapp putsch.
Reichstag Elections March 1933
•Within 24 hours of his new appointment, Hitler had called
another election both to increase the Nazi vote and to
enhance his own status.
•Campaigning would be more successful now the Nazis had
access to the resources of the state. Goebbels capitalised
on the increased access to the press and radio. Goering
was responsible for the police in Prussia and used this to
blatantly harass opponents while ignoring Nazi crimes.
•Hitler also secured financial backing for the Nazi election
campaign from 20 leading industrialists to the tune of 3
million marks.
The Reichstag Fire 27th February 1933
A young Dutch communist , Marinus van der Lubbe, was
arrested following a blaze in the Reichstag. Opinions vary
as to whether he was actually responsible but the Nazis
were quick to exploit the incident to their own advantage
Aftermath of the Reichstag Fire
•Claiming the fire was evidence of a communist plot to
takeover Germany, the Law for the Protection of People
and State was drawn up and presented to Hindenburg who
promptly signed it.
•In a few short clauses most civil and political liberties
were suspended, including freedoms of assembly and
expression.
•Crucially, central government now had the right to arrest
and detain individuals without trial for unlimited amounts
of time.
•The Nazis used these measures to restrict the
campaigning of their political opponents for the March
election.
•Unsurprisingly, the Nazis increased their share of the
vote to 43.9%.
The Enabling Act 23rd March 1933
•Hitler decided to propose a bill that would allow him to
govern without parliament for the next 4 years. However,
any changes to the existing Weimar constitution required
a two-thirds majority.
•Bargaining with parties such as the DNVP increased the
Nazi majority and Hitler falsely promised the Centre
party that he would respect the rights of the Catholic
church if given these powers.
•Intimidation and the physical barring of communist
members of the Reichstag did the rest. The Enabling Act
was passed by 444 votes to 94. The Weimar Republic had
voted itself out of existence.
“The National Socialist
movement will seek to reach
its goals through legal
means…We will seek to gain a
decisive majority in the
lawmaking bodies, and at the
moment in which we succeed
we will give the state a form
corresponding to our ideas”
Adolf Hitler
25th September 1930
How Hitler says ‘legal’
When and why did Weimar die?
Layton (2005) has identified three major weaknesses
facing the Weimar Republic.
•The hostility of Germany’s vested interests
Key powerful figures in German society and business
rejected the idea of a democratic republic. They hoped
instead for a return to the pre-war situation and worked
against the interests of Weimar.
•Ongoing economic problems
Almost continuous economic problems affected all levels of
society. The costs of the war plus the burden of
reconstruction, reparations and the expense of the new
welfare payments were difficult challenges for Weimar.
Even after the 1923 crisis, key problems remained
unresolved and this would have dramatic consequences in
the global economic crisis from 1929.
When and why did Weimar die?
•Limited base of popular support
There was never total acceptance of, and confidence in,
Weimar’s system and values. From the start it’s narrow
base of popular support was threatened by extremes of
left and right. It was also associated with defeat,
Versailles and reparations and it’s reputation was
further damaged by the crisis of 1922-3.
Liberal parties (DDP, DVP) lost support from 1924
onwards, and the Centre party and DNVP moved further
to the right. Even the SPD failed to join coalitions in
the mid 1920s and would not cooperate with it’s leftwing partner the KPD.
When and why did Weimar die?
Crucial to any consideration of why Weimar died however,
is when Weimar collapsed.
•Was it a “gamble with no chance of success” right from
it’s birth in 1918?
•Did the crisis of 1923 leave key supporters disillusioned
and unwilling to defend it?
•Did the Wall Street Crash herald the end or was Weimar
over when the Nazis became the largest party in the
Reichstag in July 1932?
•Did the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor signal the end
of democracy there and then or did it limp on until the
Enabling Act was passed in 1934?
The death of Weimar democracy: accident,
suicide or murder?
Fulbrook (2004) claims there is an element of each in
the ‘death’ of Weimar.
•‘Accident’ because had the Wall Street Crash not
occurred there would have been some chance for
continued stabilisation over time.
•‘Suicide’ because key elites had no will to uphold
democracy and took the wrong decisions, most tragically
at the very end.
•‘Murder’ because Hitler made no secret of his intention
to destroy democracy, having abused the democratic
system to attain power legally.
Banff Academy 2005